R32 Gtr Stereo Probs-Need Advice!

[Gt-r_James2]

, still Hopefully one of you guys can help me out,

I'm part way through installing a stereo in my R32, Sony Head Unit, splits in the front, 6X9s in the back, big amp and single big sub. So far I have deadend the doors and boot with Dynamat Superlight.

When I was taking out the existing (crap) 6X9 speakers I noticed that they were bolted to a home made peice of chequer plate. So my first question relates to the parcel shelf. Should I put the (heavy) chequer plate back or fabricate one myself out of MDF board? or could I just put Dynamat on the the car body/parcel shelf, bolt the speakers on and put a fitted mat over the top? How would this effect sound quality?

I've wired everything up apart from the rear speakers and am shitted by alternater whine. The RCA cable runs on the opposite sill to the power cable and it is earthed to the chassis, and it still whines! I spoke to the (not so helpful) staff at jaycar and was sold a "10A DC Noise Reducer", after patching it in there was still a whine. So, any advice? what should I try/do next? I have already plugged AV cables into the RCA ports and played my MP3 player through the stereo without the whine.

Any suggestions would really be appreciated because I don't know much about stereos and am copping shit from the GF for having a crap stereo

[Carbon 34]

checker plate, why did they use it , holes to big maybe ? photos would help

noise , put a 2 dollar RCA outside the car body and plug into amp from deck, noise gone ? yes, bad RCA or ground loop

dont ground RCA either

keep the reciept for jaycar , you wont need it if you do below.

amp ground must be paint free and decent bolt used. dirty battery teminals or loose can cause noise , a bad /old car battery cant absorb the a/c sinewave ripple from the alterator

rather then rewrite the bilble

read this, david navone has a bible pdf as well but his site is down right now

ten commandments of noise

dynamat the whole rear deck steel top , it makes a big difference. !!! and side panels in the rear sides as well, behind the plastic, front doors as well as a starter

[Gt-r_James2]

Thanks Carbon 34,

I really appreciate the link, I'll try to determibe where the group loop problem is tomorrow. Alternator whine is a major bitch and I can't wait to get rid of it.

The parcel shelf has been butchered (not a surprise given what the previous owners/morons have done), hopefully the speakers will fit though.

Thanks again.

[Chris Rogers]

is the radio a pioneer?

[Gt-r_James2]

is the radio a pioneer?

Its a Sony deck. Cadence amp, JL sub, JVC speakers and Sony speaker cable. Its a mixed bag but was all free!

[Gt-r_James2]

Just had the deck out to check the earth, it was crap. bolted it onto sanded back chassis and the whine was still there. If the deck ground and amp ground are both good what else could cause a ground loop?

[Dahtone Racing]

is the radio a pioneer?

Exactly what i was thinking LOL.

OP - So you "bypassed" the head unit and ran a MP3 player as the source and the noise wasn't there? Is this correct?

If so i would be saying the head unit is rooted.

[Gt-r_James2]

OP - So you "bypassed" the head unit and ran a MP3 player as the source and the noise wasn't there? Is this correct?

If so i would be saying the head unit is rooted.

Bummer, is there a way I can be certain that the head unit is stuffed other than try a different unit?

[Carbon 34]

yes try the rca cable trick I told you to do outside the car , sometimes the shield can be grounded on metal in the dash or loose. but outside the car to the boot it cant hit it. any old working rca can do it or a cheap as chips one.

8ga or 4 ga ground your alterator bracket to the chassis always it helps in every way besides the stereo..... ground at the factory bolt after you clean the paint rust and crust off.

explain your battery age and condition , photos ? where are you pulling power for the deck? does the sony deck have a filter on the power line either one ?

remove your antenna jack and test again, ground loops can be front floated grounds in antennas. are you using a diversity spliter on the antenna? is it soldered and taped or plugged in or freq convertor if so remove it if it has one you dont need it on aus decks .

I want to point something out not to be the dick head to you ... or say told ya so, but this is one of the installers worse nightmares, a boot full of "free" handme downs , and a previously hacked up car. and engine noise

at some point you yank the lot and bench test it on a battery or power supply. we would cringe at it in the first place and bench test everything first to save hairloss

the alternator whine can be your battery in bad condition as before. your battery can filter out noise a fair bit. if its corroded or old it wont ,

does the whine come from sub or which speakers ? deck power or amp powered ones ? what brand of amp. US Audio silver -blue one by chance or sony xplod red and silver one

whine can be induced by rca running past ecu or fan motors

Edited January 27, 2012 by Carbon 34

[Chris Rogers]

nah...

radio is fk'd given its 2nd hand I dare say that the preamp ground plane is popped and that is not helping things.

new radio time. rest is fine by the look of it.

[Chris Rogers]

I want to point something out not to be the dick head to you ... or say told ya so, but this is one of the installers worse nightmares, a boot full of "free" handme downs , and a previously hacked up car. and engine noise

and when someone brings me a mess like that I will simply say this:

as I prefer not to spend 6-8 hours debugging it

[Gt-r_James2]

yes try the rca cable trick I told you to do outside the car , sometimes the shield can be grounded on metal in the dash or loose. but outside the car to the boot it cant hit it. any old working rca can do it or a cheap as chips one.

8ga or 4 ga ground your alterator bracket to the chassis always it helps in every way besides the stereo..... ground at the factory bolt after you clean the paint rust and crust off.

explain your battery age and condition , photos ? where are you pulling power for the deck? does the sony deck have a filter on the power line either one ?

remove your antenna jack and test again, ground loops can be front floated grounds in antennas. are you using a diversity spliter on the antenna? is it soldered and taped or plugged in or freq convertor if so remove it if it has one you dont need it on aus decks .

I want to point something out not to be the dick head to you ... or say told ya so, but this is one of the installers worse nightmares, a boot full of "free" handme downs , and a previously hacked up car. and engine noise

at some point you yank the lot and bench test it on a battery or power supply. we would cringe at it in the first place and bench test everything first to save hairloss

the alternator whine can be your battery in bad condition as before. your battery can filter out noise a fair bit. if its corroded or old it wont ,

does the whine come from sub or which speakers ? deck power or amp powered ones ? what brand of amp. US Audio silver -blue one by chance or sony xplod red and silver one

whine can be induced by rca running past ecu or fan motors

Hahaha, you're not a dickhead mate you're just honest. I tend to get myself into these situations and if it weren't for guys like yourself i'd be screwed.

The battery is tagged 05/2011 and is topped up with distilled water. The Sony Xplode 52Wx4 deck was in the car when I bought it (couple of months ago) and did not whine with the previous speakers. I don't know if it has a filter and it gets its power from a modified factory loom.

The whine comes from all the speakers, I can't pick up a whine in the bass. The amp is a Cadence 'FX500' 5 channel.

I'll run an RCA cable outside the car when I get one from my other shed, while I'm at it i'll unplug the antena. The antena is just pluuged into the deck and I'm not sure if it has any of the stuff you were talking about.

While I was at Jaycar returning the noise filter I bought some 8Ga cable and will re-earth the alternater, even if this doesn't fix the stereo my car has some electrical gremlins so I'm happy to do it.

Thanks for advice guys

[sultanaz]

Tell your GF to shutup

Why wud there be 6x9s in the rear if 6s are standard, dont understand some ppl how the just chop into the shit

but neway, good luck.

[Gt-r_James2]

Tell your GF to shutup

Clearly you have been watching too much Dr Phil. Daytime television is bad for you. Bad.

I don't understand either why people do half the things they do to 'modify' their cars, I think the previous owner's favourite pastime was chopping. Cables, hoses, metal panels, whatever, just so long as he needlessly destroyed something a future owner might appreciate his day was complete. Related to this I've finally found some factory BOVs and will replace the atmo BOV from Super Crap Auto that attracts the wrong kind of attention (Bros and Cops).

I re-earthed the alternator this evening with 8ga cable and heard no/little difference. Tomorrow I'll un-plug the antena, do Carbon's RCA cable trick and get very shity if neither resolve the alternator whine.

Will keep y'all posted

[Chris Rogers]

ground loop isolator. use a couple of them. its cheating but will sort it.

[sultanaz]

Clearly you have been watching too much Dr Phil. Daytime television is bad for you. Bad.

I don't understand either why people do half the things they do to 'modify' their cars, I think the previous owner's favourite pastime was chopping. Cables, hoses, metal panels, whatever, just so long as he needlessly destroyed something a future owner might appreciate his day was complete. Related to this I've finally found some factory BOVs and will replace the atmo BOV from Super Crap Auto that attracts the wrong kind of attention (Bros and Cops).

I re-earthed the alternator this evening with 8ga cable and heard no/little difference. Tomorrow I'll un-plug the antena, do Carbon's RCA cable trick and get very shity if neither resolve the alternator whine.

Will keep y'all posted

how ?

I i barely watch tv actually..

and if a girl had a problem with my car id just say get out simple as that

duno where that came from your to serious

[Carbon 34]

watch this spot mate, I have a test for you but not time to write it now. later today

the ground was to fix other possible issues not to stop engine noise cold

the amp isnt mounted to metal is it

does it run the fronts as well ?

[Gt-r_James2]

I was happy to re-ground the alternator anyways so I wasn't to concerned that it didn't fix it.

The amp is sitting on the boot floor and there are JVC speakers in the doors.

Cheers!

[Carbon 34]

so turn off your car, no noise in system?

whine only when running for sure ? all fans etc off ?

yes, take another car hook it up to yours like your going to jump start yours, dont start yours, just turn the switch on to radio position, do you still have whine? your car is off but the other one is running ?

if yes, its not your alternator ripple so a filter wont fix it

a water battery cant absorb the a/c ripple from the alternator after a year or so , and not legal if your car is boot mounted anyway.

it is possible to test for a/c ripple but it needs a car audio person with the gear knowledge to do it near you , and noise chasing can cost a lot !!!

if you have access to borrow a battery from somone , try it , do you still have whine ? no ? buy new battery, (forgot which car you have but you need a sealed battery in Rear battery setups anyhow for safety , defects)

yes , return battery ,

that leaves your radio and rca as bad items, you said a stand alone ipod worked fine. ? but did you use the same rca in the car or direct to amp with new rca from headphone jack? if you used same rca as in the car now , then yes you have bad radio, or bad radio ground issues , no noise filter on power lines from sony , for under 100 bucks buy a new radio , sony car radios suck in most cases

amp has to have a sanded clean ground with bolt not selftap screw of the same gauge wire as power into amp,

does the noise come from all speakers up front ? or just one side ? one side, swap the rca from side to side, did it follow it to the other side now ? yes , buy better rca and run with care

pull items , bench test all together , dont use bandaid devices , a new deck cost just a bit more and has warranty still.not worth fixing the sony if its bad unless its a top of the line model

hope that helps, the jump start trick will tell you quickly just be sure you know how to jump start a car properly first, not postive to positive , neg to neg, ever, you use the cars grounds on the frame to protect the cars thru the fuses if something goes wrong

[Gt-r_James2]

Excellent post Carbon!

I'd love to do the jump start trick, I dont have access to another car where I study but when I next visit my folks/shed I'll use my vl to do it. Great idea!

I reckon it must be the RCA cable because I've eliminated most of the other options. I un-plugged the ariel, no change. The battery (in engine bay) is fine , I did the swap trick with my other car's battery yesterday with no change. The deck and amp have good earths (thick wire on sanded back chassis with a fat bolt). The head deck with previous speakers didn't whine so I think the deck isn't the problem. when I connected the ipod to the amp I used another AV cable (2 jacks converging into one) and no whine.

The noise comes from all speakers, I've tried biasing it front-back, left-right etc, the whine didn't change.

When I was at Jaycay this arvo (getting a capacitor for the G-sensor that shitted itself) I explained my stereo predicament and the dude said I could plug in a groundloop isloator right there in the carpark and if it didnt work I didn't have to pay for it. It worked and I bought it. Generally its not my philosophy to use band aid solutions but for $10 the sound quality got much better (fully sick) and it saves me time screwing around with the car instead of enjoying it. When I get another RCA cable (known to be good) from my bro I'll re-wire the stereo and know for sure where the glitch is.

Ah, the joys of cars.